Workshop on Teaching Introductory Statistics

Led by Roger Woodard, North Carolina State University, Ginger Rowell, Middle Tennessee State University, andBob delMas, University of Minnesota

About the workshop

The Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education (CAUSE) in conjunction with the Medical College of Wisconsin is sponsoring a workshop on teaching introductory statistics. This 4 day workshop will expose participants to current ideas in teaching and planning a course on introductory statistics.

The workshop will explore many topics in the development and improvement of an introductory statistics course. The workshop will begin with methods of planning a course to highlight key concepts. Participants will then move on to the building and planning hands on activities. Participants will also explore CAUSEweb.org an online digital library of statistics teaching materials. The workshop will also help participants develop assessment strategies and instruments that identify student learning. This will include use of the online Assessment Resource Tools for Improving Statistical Thinking (ARTIST).

Workshop Agenda

About the leaders

Roger Woodard is an assistant professor in the Department of Statistics at the North Carolina Sate University. Dr. Woodard received his doctorate from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He has extensive experience in the use of technology and teacher training issues in the undergraduate classroom. Dr. Woodard currently serves simultaneously as the editor of the CAUSEweb resource library and the editor of MERLOT-Statistics, both which are prominent digital libraries of statistics teaching materials. He has conducted extensive research in the use of learning styles in teaching introductory statistics. Dr. Woodard specializes in statistics education and training of instructors. Dr. Woodard is the 2005 recipient of the American Statistical Association's Waller Award for Excellence and Innovation in Statistics Education.

Dr. Ginger Holmes Rowell taught math and computer science in the Alabama secondary public school system before pursuing a Ph.D. in mathematics with an emphasis in probability and statistics at the University of Alabama in Huntsville where she graduated in 1995. In 1996, Dr. Rowell was selected as a Mathematical Association of America National Project NExT Fellow. Project NExT provides new Ph.D.'s in mathematics with training and experiences to become better teachers, researchers, and leaders in the field of mathematics. During the summers of 1999 and 2000, Dr. Rowell was a Summer Faculty Fellow at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. She worked in the Engineering Cost Office using statistical methods to help predict cost of space flight vehicles. Recently, she has continued her research at MSFC using statistical analysis to estimate cost for NASA's Next Generation Space Telescope. Taking these real life applications back into the classroom is important to Dr. Rowell. Her use of these opportunities to involve students and mentor them in research projects has resulted in student presentations and papers. Dr. Rowell is a regular presenter at both regional and national conferences on the subjects of statistics and statistics education. She also demonstrates her strong commitment to educating teachers and future teachers about the exciting real life uses for statistics by leading workshops.

Bob delMas is an Associate Professor, Department of Educational Psychology, University of Minnesota. He is a co-PI of the NSF funded project, Assessment Resource Tools for Improving Statistical Thinking, also known as ARTIST. He has made several presentations with Joan Garfield and Beth Chance on their joint research into the effective use of software to promote students statistical thinking and reasoning. Their work has been published in the Journal of Statistics Education (JSE) and is highlighted in the book "Statistical Thinking, Reasoning, and Literacy" (Kluwer) that provides an international perspective on current statistics education research. Bob also conducts research on students understanding of the standard deviation, which has been published in the Statistics Education Research Journal (SERJ). He is an associate editor for the Journal of Statistics Education, a research consultant for CAUSE (Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education), and the current chair of the Joint ASA/AMATYC committee on Statistics Education.

Registration

The July 10-13th CAUSE workshop in Milwaukee on teaching introductory statistics is now fully subscribed. Please e-mail Jean Scott if you want to be notified when CAUSE will be offering similar workshops.

The workshop for Teachers of Introductory Statistics will be held on the Medical College of Wisconsin campus. There is no registration fee or cost for materials. Lunch will be provided each day of the workshop to all participants as well as a dinner for the participants on Wednesday evening July 12th. Lodging will be provided at the Holiday Inn Express for those participants who live further than 30 miles from the College. A continental breakfast is available at no charge to hotel guests, as well as a complimentary shuttle to the MCW campus. Participants will be responsible for all other meals. Applications to attend this workshop will be evaluated and notification of acceptance will be emailed in the near future.

Please note: CAUSEway workshops receive principal funding from a National Science Foundation grant. As part of that award, Science and Mathematics Program Improvement (SAMPI) at Western Michigan University will be conducting an independent evaluation of all CAUSEway activities and workshop participants are expected to fully participate in this evaluation.